I just received a core i7 980X 2 hours ago, and it is clear that it is not new. There is still heatsink compound on it as well as marks from a heatsink. In addition, there are scratches on the side of it as well.
How can they sell a $1200 processor as new when someone either RMA'd it or worse someone at NCIX went through a bunch of these trying to find a good one?
Does anyone have a contact number of a supervisor at NCIX? They are giving me a run around as to whether it is new or not! And I paid for advanced RMA!

They are in fact tested at factory before being sold.

The Intel boxes are usually solidly sealed with either a very obvious "Intel Factory Sealed" sticker, or the box itself is glued shut.
The flaps don't "re-close" after being opened so it would be fairly apparent even before you saw the CPU that it had been opened.